Call Me Bae – R Crit Reviews

Cast: Ananya Panday, Gurfateh Pirzada, Vihaan Samat, Niharika Dutt, Muskkaan Jaferi, Varun Sood, Vir Das, Lisa Mishra & ensembleCreator: Ishita Moitra
Director: Collin D’CunhaStreaming On: Prime VideoLanguage: HindiRuntime: 8 episodes of 30 minutes eachCall Me Bae Review: What’s It About:Bae is a Gen Z code for Before Anyone Else. But Ananya Panday’s Bae in Call Me Bae is a cutely edited version of her already cute name – Bella! Yes, that is the level of cute this web series is gonna get! Directed by Collin D’Cunha and produced by Dharmatic Entertainment, a child of Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, this web series will give you lots to think about.Wonder why? Because it is very quick and superficial, so much so that you can multitask while watching it. (And trust me it could be a sane decision). To put things into perspective, Ananya Panday is a girl called Bella, born with a golden spoon, who belongs to a super-rich family and is married to a super-rich guy. But like most rich families, she has everything except love, which she seeks out of her marriage, falling for her gym trainer. This is an informed choice she makes, but only to get caught in the middle of the act!This is the exact point where Call Me Bae starts! A disloyal wife abandoned by her husband, and her family Bae moves ahead on a journey to find herself, the reason of her existence.Call Me Bae Review: Script Analysis:Written by Ishita Moitra, Samina Motlekar, and Rohit Nair, the world of Bae is very familiar. It has shades of Sonam Kapoor’s Aisha but elaborately sets up in a Schitt’s Creek meets Emily In Paris kind of world. Meanwhile, Ananya Panday has shades of Suhana Khan‘s Veronica from The Archies clubbed with Annie Murphy’s Alexis from Schitt’s Creek. And the similarities are uncanny.However, do all the rich people have the same problems, and do all the rich people talk, walk, eat, sleep, and repeat the same way? Only that we would never know this super-rich world is something you and I will never find out. The script for this show is too shallow to discuss. I mean, considering that it targets the Gen-Z and is a show about them, it still has no depth whatsoever to even point out!Right from Bae landing in Mumbai to getting a job as a journalist because of a viral social media clip calling out a privileged journo, everything in this series has been taken up in a very frivolous manner. In fact, I have been writing about it all over the place since the web series was all over the place.There are certain things I could not understand – for example, is this a spoof on the rich and accomplished people, or do they really chat and behave the way everyone, including Ananya Panday, is behaving? The series tries to connect with Gen Z through social media madness, but that just appears and disappears. Ananya’s course in social media journalism seems like an interesting pitch when she says it is difficult to keep everyone engaged in just 140 characters. However, the story never uses social media as a useful or powerful tool. It is just there!Not that I am expecting Call Me Bae to be a thought-provoking web series, but it is intentionally talking about a girl who is discovering herself professionally and the ethics and sensibilities of her profession are turned into some sort of spoof. (Do the director and writers really think journos are behaving this way? In what world? Take me to that world!)Call Me Bae Review: Star Performance:Casting Ananya Panday as Bae seemed like a non-debatable choice but only if she could not have tried looking the part because she very-well looked the part but then she decided to offer some more performance wise and that is where things go insane. Lack of story highlights this acting flaws, despite Bae calling her flawsome. But we ain’t impressed with this version of flawsome.However, the rest of the star cast works in favor of the show. Niharika Dutt & Muskaan Jaaferi are the best friends, Vir Das is the rival, Gurfateh Pirzada is the knight in shining armor, and Varun Sood is the boy who needs to be there all work for the web series.Call Me Bae Review: What Works:Despite the flaws, this web series works in parts, though I really cannot point out the exact parts. But teens would love the Behen Code bonding of the trio who embark on a journey to seek validation as professionals. Meanwhile, the cast makes sure to not let the series fall flat despite week writing.Call Me Bae Review: What Doesn’t Work:In its entirety, the series is too long to work. Nothing concrete happens for 8 episodes, and Enid Blyton’s chapter for The Famous Five makes a much more intriguing plot than this teen flick, which is about living in a bubble. But Delulu is not Solulu, and someone needs to break this to Call Me Bae’s team! Probably, the series could have worked like a mini-version with 5 episodes of shorter length!Call Me Bae Review: Last Words:This is a classic: Schitt’s Creek Meets Emily In Paris Meets Aisha World. The only thing worth highlighting is, this one is better than Aisha. That had Abhay Deol give you a reason to keep breathing, and this one has Gurfateh. However, this could have been a brilliant teenage web-series if there would have been some sane and meaningful writing. Currently it just hangs between – Are they really dumb or are they spoofing the ones who are dumb. And I never want to know this answer!